Pipin: Has my character ever been given a second chance?
From the days when Arenvalde still served and trained in the Sekiseigumi, came a much more young and naive child who could have been considered a touch too gentle to be working with such folks. Though he stood a good foot taller then most others of his age, he was often teased as being a gentle Oni on the account of his size and mass.
On this particular day, he was accompanying his Troop Captain on a patrol through one of the smaller towns. There had been reports of ninja activity subverting the local populace’s opinion on the current Bafuku establishment and unrest was apparent. The Highlander could remember how it was a particularly warm spring’s day and how the summer’s humidity had seemed to arrive early. The sweat had clung to him as the Cicadas sang their song and felt as if the sun itself had demanded to know of their activity by staring them down.
Regardless, work had to be done. The day was spent taking intermittent breaks while talking with the locals to see if anything odd was occurring. The day wore long and soon, even the sun tired of it’s presence in the sky as it retired to the night. It was, of course, than they had reports of a woman in trouble in the confines of her home. A ninja had made their appearance and so would the two Samurai make haste.
When they would arrive at the home, they would find the woman on the floor. Unable to stay himself, Arenvalde would rush in and that is when absolute chaos struck. His captain was slain in a instant by a ninja who hung in the doorway and, as he supported the woman up, she was very much alive and proved it by thrusting a dagger into his heart. The Samurai would pass out from the sheer pain and shock.
In the dead of night he would awaken, roused by the shaking of fellow Sekiseigumi members as his mind struggled to recall what happened in his sleep. Though his robes wore crimson with how much he bled, a probing finger that would wander to the source of the wellspring of red would tell the story of how the blade did not reach his life. His small manual on the conduct of the Sekiseigumi wore a large wound in place of him, allowing only the tip of the dagger to draw blood from his flesh.
It was in this moment that Arenvalde felt as if the Kami had given him a second chance and a sign. Examing the book, he felt it almost poetic that all of the major tenants had been torn asunder. He would leave the Sekiseigumi only 2 years later.@kepesktribe
